


Music Is Not My Forte

by TheOneGingerNinja



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, The Outsider is a nerd pass it on, clichés everywhere, gonna try and have everyone make a little cameo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-12-31
Packaged: 2018-08-16 11:13:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8100274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOneGingerNinja/pseuds/TheOneGingerNinja
Summary: It's Corvo's Senior year at his high school and he just wants it to be over. Though, getting the lead in the school musical, gaining the attention of the weird stage manager, and constantly being threatened by your co-stars tends to make things a bit complicated.





	1. Chapter 1

If there was one thing Corvo hated about himself, it would be the fact that when it came to Ms. Kaldwin, he couldn’t say no. Ms. Kaldwin, who was the school’s head counselor, had helped Corvo through some rough patches in his freshman year. As a senior, he still went to Ms. Kaldwin during his lunch period, though the meetings became less formal as the years went on, it was nice for Corvo to have someone to actually listen to him. 

Corvo did not actually know how the topic of singing came up into their conversation; all he knows is that the second he mentioned he sort of enjoyed singing, Ms, Kaldwin went on to talk about the upcoming Musical.

“You should audition, even if you don’t get a part, it would still be an experience,” She had said, grabbing one of the fliers that had the information about the musical. 

Corvo had taken it and skimmed over it even though he had no intention of auditioning. He shrugged in response to what Ms. Kaldwin had said. 

“I think it would be great for you Corvo, it is your last year here,” She continued. 

“Okay,” Corvo replied, even though he really didn’t want to audition. There was just something about Ms. Kaldwin that made him, and practically everyone around her, unable to say no. 

So that was how Corvo Attano ended up sitting down in the back room connected to the theater waiting for his name to be called. He held the paper he had received from Ms. Kaldwin in his hand, idly folding and unfolding it. 

Around him, other students were both talking and singing, practicing for when they would be called. Corvo did not think he would even be considered for a part and was really only auditioning for Ms. Kaldwin, hence the sitting in his seat silently. 

Corvo cleared his throat, ignoring the footsteps that sounded as if they were approaching him. He didn’t look up, someone was probably just walking past him to get to the group of students behind him. 

“I haven’t seen you here before,” A smooth voice said. Corvo looked towards the voice and came face to face with the Outsider. 

While it was his nickname for whatever reason, nobody actually knew the Outsider’s real name. Everyone just called him that, the Outsider, or The-Really-Weird-Kid-Who-Sits-In-The-Back-And-Seems-To-Be-In-Everyone’s-Art-Class. Most just stuck with the Outsider, however. 

“So what made you decided to come to our theater?” the Outsider asked. Only he said “theater” as if it had three syllables. “Thee-ate-er” instead of “thee-ter.”

Ignoring the Outsider’s pronunciation, Corvo shrugged his shoulders in response. He watched as the Outsider crossed his arms. His eyes bore into Corvo’s. 

“Interesting,” A pause. “Well, break a leg, Corvo.”

The Outsider walked away from Corvo, who was nonplussed. First, how did the Outsider know his name; second, how can the Outsider manage to send chills up Corvo’s spine just by saying his name?

“Corvo Attano,” The same stagehand called, bringing Corvo out of his thought. 

Setting the flier down on his seat, Corvo walked towards the stage door, thanking the stagehand as he held open the door. 

“Make your way to the ‘X’ on the stage. It’s bright pink, can’t miss it,” The stagehand said, gently closing the door as soon as Corvo was in the threshold. 

He walked across the large stage, his shoes making a tapping sound as he walked. He stopped at the neon pink ‘X’ and wow did it hurt to look at. 

“Name?” A surly voice demanded. 

Corvo knew that voice, it belonged to Anton Sokolov. Sokolov, while he was the AP Art and Psychology teacher, somehow made time to be the director for both the school’s play, and the upcoming musical. 

Realizing that he still had to answer the question, Corvo quickly said his name.

Even though he was sitting a bit back from the stage, Corvo could still make out the gesture that Anton gave, a sign to start. Corvo cleared his throat before he began.

The song he chose to audition with wasn’t anything popular or special, just an old song he remembered his mother singing to him before she passed. He went through the song, his voice echoing in the nearly empty theater, until Anton held up his hand to stop him. 

“Cast list will be posted on Monday,” The man said, his booming voice projecting itself across the theater. 

Corvo gave a nod before exiting the stage, trying to open the exit door as quietly as possible. Before it shut he heard the sharp click of heels on the ground. He turned and saw one of the Boyle sisters, he could never tell them apart, strutting to the center of the stage. 

She did not bother telling her name, instead she jumped right into a horribly off-key rendition of some hit song that had been on the radio for a few weeks. Corvo winced as he closed the door, the horrible singing following him as he exited the stage area. 

Corvo thought about what he was going to do on the upcoming weekend as he exited the school. Normally he would head down to his part time job at Spiritual Remedies for the Soul, a second hand book store owned by Piero Joplin; but he had taken the day off due to the fact that Corvo had no idea how long his audition would take. 

Since he had nothing else to do, Corvo figured he would head back to the tiny apartment he called home. While it was not in the best part of town, the rent was cheap and his landlord,  
Cecelia, was somewhat lenient with the rent. 

He had no homework for once, and really the only obligations he had was to run by the store and pick up a few things. He could do that on Sunday, however, which left the short break free for Corvo. 

Really though, the only thing Corvo wanted to do was sleep when he got home. Beginning the two mile walk home, Corvo was humming his audition song, his mind drifting back to his encounter with the Outsider. Why was the Outsider there in the first place? It didn’t seem like he was there to audition. But then again, Corvo did not really know anything about the Outsider himself. 

Pushing the Outsider out of his mind, Corvo opened the door to his apartment building, giving a nod to Cecelia as he climbed up the stairs to his apartment. He unlocked the door and threw down his bag while also toeing off his shoes. He walked straight into the small section of the apartment that he called his bedroom, closed the door behind him, and fell face first into his bed.

His last thoughts before he drifted off to sleep were about the Outsider.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi folks, welcome to Chapter 2! Thanks for all the kudos and reviews, I love seeing you reactions! If you want to read more of my ramblings I have another one of these little notes at the end of the chapter. Enjoy!
> 
> P.S. Sorry if the formatting is a little weird, I'm still getting the hang of posting to AO3 :^/

The weekend went by a bit too quickly for Corvo. By the time Monday rolled around he was seriously debating if his diploma would  _ really  _ be worth it. After figuring that, yes it would be needed if he ever wanted to leave Dunwall, he grabbed his keys and a pear before he locked the door behind him and headed off for school. 

  


He waited until he was about two-thirds of the way to school before he took a bite out of the pear. He continued to eat his breakfast as the school came into view, the building’s faded and stained bricks standing out against the bright blue sky. He tossed the remains of the pear into a nearby trashcan before wiping his hands on his jeans and pulling open the door to his school. 

  


He headed to his locker at a somewhat leisurely pace, he still had a few minutes before the warning bell. His locker, coincidentally was merely a hallway away from the entrance to the backstage of the theater.  

  


Knowing this, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that many of the students he had seen at the audition last Friday were crowding the door to the backstage entrance. Ignoring them, Corvo made his way to his locker, trying to avoid getting pushed to the ground. Who knew the theater kids could be co aggressive? 

  


Normally at this time, most everyone was either not present or already in their classrooms waiting for the day to begin. Corvo was rather surprised to see the Outsider standing around. It is possible that his locker was near Corvo’s, but Corvo had always come to his locker before and after school, and he had  _ never  _ seen the Outsider anywhere near it. 

  


“I take it you have seen the postings?” the Outsider asked, crossing his arms. Corvo had only really seen the other student twice, but he could infer that the arm crossing seems to be the norm for the Outsider. 

  


“No,” Corvo replied simply, starting to twist his combination into his locker. 

  


“No? Well, you might be surprised to see them,” the Outsider said, the corners of his mouth barely turning upwards. Just barely though.

  


Corvo nodded in reply, starting to grab his binders and notebooks. 

  


“So just why did you audition? Truly. I’ll admit it was very intriguing that of all the years you choose this one to try out,” the Outsider mused, “Could it be because of a certain school counselor?” 

  


Corvo’s grip on his supplies tightened. Just who was this guy and what gave him the right to barge into Corvo’s life like that? Corvo slammed his locker door shut.

  


“Struck a nerve, have I?” The Outsider taunted. Corvo glared daggers at the other student before storming off with a huff. 

  


“We both know that I’m right,  _ Corvo _ ,” the Outsider said as Corvo was walking away. 

  


Corvo’s fists clenched around his binders. He was so occupied on getting away from the Outsider that he didn’t even bother to look at the cast list before he passed it. There were too many people in front of it for him to get a clear look anyway. 

**XxX**   


Usually Corvo would come into Ms. Kaldwin’s little office during his lunch period and the two would have a pleasant chat about whatever came to mind, even though on some days it was Ms. Kaldwin who did most of the talking. 

  


However, today Corvo came into Ms. Kaldwin’s office with a glare on his face, a huge contrast to the bright smile that was on Ms. Kaldwin’s. Her smile was quickly replaced with a look of concern. 

  


“Is everything alright, Corvo?” She asked. He shook his head, his gaze lowered to the desk that separated them. 

  


“I don’t know if this will cheer you up, but did you happen to see the final posting of the cast list?” Ms. Kaldwin asked turning around in her swivel chair to rustle through some papers. 

  


“I didn’t see them,” Corvo said bluntly, his eyes still firmly planted on the desk in front of him. 

  


Ms, Kaldwin slid a piece of paper across her desk, placing it within Corvo’s line of sight. He scanned the paper. There at the top, in bold lettering was his name, directly below it was Esma Boyle. 

  


“You must have really impressed Mr. Sokolov if you managed to get one of the leads,” Ms. Kaldwin said cheerfully. 

  


“I didn’t think I did that great,” Crovo said. Then again, he probably shouldn’t be surprised that he got a part considering  _ Esma  _ was another leading role. 

  


“Well, congratulations Corvo. It’s a pretty big thing to get the lead, I can’t wait to see it,” Ms. Kaldwin said happily, the smile back on her face. 

  


Corvo was conflicted. Option A was to back out now while it was still early, save himself the embarrassment of singing in front of the school. Option B was to go on with the whole thing and cause himself a lot of unnecessary stress. 

  


“Yeah, sure,” Corvo replied. He really  _ couldn’t  _ say no to Ms. Kaldwin. 

  


From outside Ms. Kaldwin’s office, Corvo heard the bell signaling that his lunch period was over. It always seemed to go by quick whenever he talked with Ms. Kaldwin. 

  


“Bye Corvo, have a nice day,” Ms. Kaldwin said as she waved goodbye to Corvo who was exiting her office. 

  


“Yeah, you too,” He said in reply as he gently closed the door behind him. He navigated his way through the school’s hallways, sliding past the various other students milling around. He had a study hall next period, maybe he could talk with Mr. Sokolov and figure out a way he could do rehearsals and still make it to his job. 

**XxX**   


When the bell rang at the end of Corvo’s history class, he grabbed his things and headed down to the theater room. He had about 45 minute to kill and what better way to do so than to work out his schedule.

  


The door to the theater came into view and Corvo shifted the books and binders in his hand so he could pull open the door. But before he could reach the handle the door was forcefully pushed open, nailing Corvo right on the nose. He let out a pained gasp and clutched at his nose. He saw Esma Boyle stalking away, not even noticing that she had rammed the door into Corvo. 

  


When he briefly removed his hand he winced at the blood that was smeared on it. Awkwardly shuffling his books around looked down, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was just about to head off to the bathroom when a hand on his shoulder stopped him. He turned around and saw that it was none other than the Outsider. 

  


“My, my, the temper on Miss. Boyle. She gets told no and then she's off and running to dear old mom,” The Outsider said to Corvo, beginning to rustle through his pockets. Corvo watched in silence as he pulled out a handkerchief of all things. What kind of person who is under the age of 60 just carries around a handkerchief? 

  


Nevertheless, Corvo still mumbled a thank you when the piece of cloth was offered to him. He dabbed at his nose, feeling a little bad that he ruined the guy’s handkerchief; but then he stopped feeling too guilty when he remembered the things the Outsider had said earlier today. 

  


“If you’re planning on visiting Mr. Sokolov for any scheduling problems, I would recommend coming back a bit later. That was the exact issue that Miss. Boyle had and I am sure you can figure out how that went,” the Outsider said, striking his go-to pose with his arms crossed. 

  


Corvo frowned. That was  _ exactly  _ why he was there, and it seemed like he got this bloody nose for nothing. He really did not want to deal with an incredibly pissed off Sokolov. 

  


“If I were you, Corvo, I would head down to the nurse and come back later,” the Outsider said before he turned and started walking down the hall.

  


Corvo stood there dumbfounded. While this conversation had been a bit more pleasant than the one earlier on in the day, it was still weird. For whatever reason the Outsider seemed to be paying special attention to him.

  


Readjusting his books, Corvo made his way down the halls to the restroom. It was only once he was about to wash his face that he realized he still had the Outsider’s handkerchief. He frowned at the amount of blood that was staining it. 

  


He couldn’t very well go return it covered in his blood. Who knows what the Outsider might do with it. He wrapped the cloth in a layer of toilet paper before shoving it into his bag. He would clean it, and  _ then  _ return it. 

  


He finished washing his face and hands, watching as the red-tinged water went down the drain. After adjusting his collar and making himself more presentable, Corvo decided that it would probably be better if he skipped meeting with Sokolov today, and did that tomorrow, most likely when he was in a more favorable mood. 

  


He gave himself a onceover in the mirror, making sure all bloodstains were gone and he looked somewhat decent, he dried his hands with a paper towel and exited the bathroom. A glance at his watch let him know that he had about two minutes to get to his next class. He took the stairs two at a time, not wanting to be late. 

**XxX**

Corvo was running late. Not to class, he managed to slide into his seat a second before the bell went off; no he was late to something much more important; his part time job. While Peiro was a rather reasonable man, Corvo did not want to get on his bad side, especially because he may have to miss some of his shifts due to the upcoming musical. 

  


If it wasn’t for Esma Boyle holding him up at the end of the day, talking about something relating to the musical, he probably could have left a little earlier. He actually wasn’t paying attention to Esma while she had been talking, he just nodded and made the occasional “hmm” as he hurriedly exited the class. He would probably regret that tomorrow. 

  


Giving a quick glance to his watch, he doubled his pace, practically sprinting down the street to get to work. By the time he yanked open the door to the little bookshop he was out of breath and incredibly tired. He groaned at the thought of actually having to  _ interact  _ with  _ people.  _

  


“Ah, Corvo. Running a little late today?” A voice said, startling Corvo from where he stood panting in the door frame. He looked up and met eyes with Hiram Burrows, a man who spent almost all of his spare time at the bookshop. 

  


He always complained that they never had this specific book in stock, yet he never took up Corvo’s offer to order the book and for whatever reason he refused to go somewhere else to look for the book. 

  


“Well, if you’ll excuse me, I have very important business to attend,” Burrows said pushing past Corvo, who still stood in the door frame. 

  


The people in this town were so strange. 

  


Shaking off his encounter with Burrows, Corvo headed into the back of the shop going to the small cubbyhole where he exchanged his school bag and his coat for his name tag. Piero was writing in the ledger at the desk in the corner, his pen scratching against the paper. 

  


“Corvo, hello. I had a shipment of new books come in earlier. Would you mind unloading them? It shouldn’t take too long,” Piero said, not looking up from his writings. 

  


“Alright,” Corvo replied, already walking towards the medium sized box in the corner. 

  


“Oh, and Corvo,” Piero began.

  


“Yes?” The younger man replied uneasily. 

  


“Try to get here a little earlier tomorrow, please,” He said, his tone slightly reprimanding. Corvo nodded, but then remembered that Piero was not looking at him. He made a sound that probably could have been taken for a yes and then exited the room, bringing the box of books with him. 

  


It wasn’t too difficult to unload the books, it was a pretty simple task which allowed him to focus his thoughts on more pressing matters. Not only did he still have homework to do, but he still had to somehow fix his schedule,  _ and  _ clean the Outsider’s handkerchief.  Corvo rubbed at his forehead, trying to ward away the headache he felt coming on. He couldn’t wait for his shift to be over so he could go home and sleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so I got this chapter a day earlier than planned, go me! Thank you for the kudos and reviews, I really do love feedback because it shows me that I am doing something right as an author. If you want to ask me questions and things shoot me a message, or drop by and say hi on my Tumblr; ginger-writes-things. I hope to have the next chapter out as quickly as I can, but my school work keeps me pretty busy. Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait :/
> 
> P.S. Thanks for the kudos and reviews and everything! It really brightens my entire week when I see people enjoying this.

When Corvo first woke up he was a little confused. He wasn’t in his bed, instead he had fallen asleep at his desk. Last night’s homework papers were scattered and a few of the papers were crinkled from his impromptu sleep. He stretched his arms and cracked his neck, shaking away the sleep from his body. 

He glanced at his watch and when he saw the time his heart skipped a beat. It was already half past seven and school started in fifteen minutes. Muttering a curse he grabbed his bag and dumped all of his papers into it. 

He went into his bedroom and quickly stripped down grabbing a shirt from his closet and pulling it over his head. He reached into his dresser and pulled out a clean pair of jeans. As he was putting those on, he went into his small bathroom and began to brush his teeth. He looked at his reflection and ran his fingers through his hair, trying to get rid of any signs of sleep. 

Two minutes later he was out the door taking the steps down two at a time. He jogged down the street trying not to think about how he probably only had about five minute to get to class. While he could go through the school’s front entrance it would be much quicker to hop a few fences and sneak in through the back entrance of the school. On the other hand, however, there was no guarantee the back entrance would be unlocked and there was a chance he would be caught trying to sneak in.

A glance to his watch again showed Corvo that unless he magically acquired the speed of Usain Bolt he was going to be late if he went in the front way. Taking a deep breath, Corvo took a left and sprinted, his bag thumping against his back. 

There were two main obstacles that blocked the way to the back entrance, the first on being a wall that surrounded the entire school. Slipping his bag off of his back, Corvo chucked it over the wall. Once he heard it land on the ground, he ran over to the side and hauled himself onto a nearby dumpster. He jumped on an old AC unit and pulled himself up. He then took a small step back before leaping towards the edge of the wall. 

The breath was knocked out of him as soon as he collided with the wall and after inhaling sharply he finished climbing the wall. He stayed low as he made his way to the drainage pipe that was on the side of the wall. He tucked his hands inside his jacket before grabbing onto the pipe and sliding down. 

He grabbed his bag before sprinting to the next obstacle, though it was a rather small fence. Again, he tossed his bag over the fence before climbing. This one took a smaller amount of time than the last. 

Once he was over the fence all Corvo had to do was get inside school and hopefully make it to his class before his first period teacher noticed he was late. He landed in the grass with a small thump. He quickly regained his balance and looped his bag around his shoulders before he continued sprinting. 

With the back entrance in sight Corvo began to speed walk towards the door. Trying not to draw attention to himself now that there was a possibility one of the teachers seeing him, he ducked past the dumpsters and crouched down. 

He let himself breathe for a moment before heading towards the side door, giving a silent prayer to whatever gods were listening. Thankfully, someone up there was looking out for him, as the door was open and there seemed to be no other students or teachers around. 

He went inside the building quickly checking the time as he started to head to class. He was so focused on getting to class the he completely missed the other person in front of him, and the two ended up crashing together. 

Due to Corvo’s quick reflexes, he managed to stay on his feet but also grab the other man before he could fall. He couldn’t save the books that clattered to the floor, however. 

“How unexpected to run into you like this, Corvo,” A familiar voice said. Of course he would run into the Outsider. Not like it could just be some random student who he would never see again. It was then that Corvo realized he still had an arm around the Outsider’s slim waist. 

He quickly removed his arm and ducked down, picking up the books to hide his slightly red cheeks. Once he had all of the books in hand, he held them out for the Outsider to take, As he did this, the final bell alerting everyone that school was now officially starting rang. Corvo wanted to bang his head against the wall.

He was so close yet so far. 

He was about to go back down to the attendance office and sign in, when the Outsider grabbed his hand. He turned it so the palm was facing upwards. 

“This is my Mark, use it well, Corvo,” The Outsider said gently placing a small piece of paper in his hand. Before Corvo could ask anything, the Outsider was already walking down the halls. 

The oddest thing about that encounter was that Corvo almost expected something weird like that to happen. It would have been weird if the Outsider hadn’t talked about some cryptic thing. 

Corvo took the time to examine the card he was given. There was some kind of design on the back, it actually looked pretty cool. When he flipped it over he saw scrawling cursive script written.

As he scanned what was written, Corvo realized that it was like a late pass, stating he had been held back by theater. Three things immediately came to Corvo’s mind. 

One, bless the Outsider for giving him this. Two, why did the Outsider give him this? And three, does the Outsider just carry and give these out? 

Deciding to leave these questions for later, Corvo walked up the stairs to his first period class. He flashed the pass at his teacher who merely nodded and makes him present in the attendance book. Taking his seat, Corvo pulled out his notebook and prepared himself for the lesson.   
XxX  
It wasn’t until his lunch time rolled around that the day took another sharp turn for the worse. It apparently wasn’t enough to whatever gods might be watching that he had a pretty bad start to the day, they just had to force an extremely unpleasant interaction with Esma Boyle. 

Corvo just wanted to grab himself a lunch from the cafeteria and then head to Ms. Kaldwin’s office. But as he was walking past the rows of tables he found himself being yanked down into a seat by Esma. 

Corvo’s first thought was damn this woman is strong. 

“Isn’t that right, you won’t mess up my performance, will you?” She asked, still gripping his arm. Corvo looked around the table and saw a group of girls, Esma’s friends most likely, giggling. 

He shrugged. Well, tried to anyways, but the grip on his arm was like steel. Did Esma bench press in her free time? The grip on his arm was released for a second and Corvo took the opportunity to stand up, only to be yanked right back down. 

“Don’t you want to sit with me? We are staring in the musical together,” Esma said in a hurt tone. He got that she was in theater, but did she really need to be this dramatic off stage. 

Deciding to stop any more unnecessary drama that would come from saying no he set down his tray and began to eat. 

“So, Cory, why did you decide to audition?” One of Esma’s friends asked him. There were two reasons Corvo did not answer. Number one being he almost didn’t realize the question was being aimed at him because his name was Corvo, not Cory. The second reason was because Esma felt the need to answer for him. 

“Because he knew he would be staring with me. All the reason anyone would ever need,” She loudly declared. 

Holy shit, how egotistical could one person be? 

The girls loved this answer however and broke out into whispers and giggles. Corvo was really wishing he skipped school entirely today. Walking up late should have been a sign for him to just stay home. 

To add to all the chaos that was going on, it was then the Corvo spotted him. The Outsider was sitting on one of the adjacent tables. He apparently was never taught how to use chairs. He seems to be watching Corvo’s predicament with glee. Well, the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned in what could possibly be classified as a smile. 

Corvo felt like getting up and walking away, drama be damned. But they he remembered that he would probably have to deal with a very pissed of Esma at rehearsal, and he did not feel like giving himself another headache. 

So he endured the gossip and chatter from the ladies as he ate his lunch, trying not to care about how the Outsider was watching him, probably already coming up with some cryptic shit to do to him later today. 

Corvo was really starting to feel like he murdered a lot of people in a past life for the world to hate him this much.   
XxX  
After the incident at lunch, everything went pretty smoothly. His classes were boring and nobody really paid any attention, but that was fine. And yes, Esma talked his ear off during the class they shared, but that was also okay because in the short time he had known her he had already learned how to tune her out without her catching on. The trick was when she shut up you turned towards the and nodded. 

The day seemed to go by quicker and the time inched closer to rehearsal. It was then that Corvo realized he forgot to ask Peiro for a shift change. As if he wasn’t stressed enough, now he still had to try and work out his schedule. 

Okay, so do rehearsal, sprint to his job, work things out with Peiro, yes, he could do this. It would be killer on his legs but Corvo could probably do it. 

When the final bell rang, Corvo gathered his stuff and headed to his locker. Thankfully it wasn’t too far from the theater, which meant he was not forced to rush around for once. Well, by not forced to rush around that more meant he could speed walk instead of running to his locker. 

When Corvo arrived at his locker and began to twist in his combination, he was not shocked by the Outsider standing directly next to his locker.

“So Corvo, I see my mark served you well,” The Outsider said leaning against the locker next to Corvo’s. Seeing this made Corvo wonder if all theater people were this dramatic, or if it was just those who attended high school in Dunwall. 

“Yeah, thanks, it saved me from detention,” Corvo replied, beginning to walk towards the theater. The Outsider followed behind him, taking larger strides than he normally did to catch up to Corvo. 

The Outsider gave a thoughtful ‘hmm’ in response. The two continued to the theater in silence that was only slightly awkward. The Outsider had walked a few paces in front of Corvo by the time they reached the theater door was was about ready to open it when Corvo saw the handle quickly turn. 

Thinking on impulse, he grabbed the Outsider by the wrist and pulled him away from the opening door. He heard the Outsider sharply inhale as he was roughly pulled away. In a twisted sense of déjà vu, Esma Boyle had thrown open the door and was glaring daggers at the two that just happened to be in her way. 

“You’re late Corvo,” She said through clenched teeth. Okay, so maybe he didn’t have as much time as he thought in between final bell and the start of rehearsal, but he honestly didn’t think he was that late. 

Corvo opened his mouth to reply, but the Boyle sister was already storming off, probably to go cry in a bathroom if Corvo had to guess, it would be dramatic enough. 

“My, Corvo, learned you lesson from yesterday, did we?” The Outsider asked, grinning. Actually grinning this time, teeth and everything. 

Corvo felt his face heat up, only this time there were no dropped books to hide it. How could one person manage to make him feel such a wide range of emotions from hatred to embarrassment? Letting go of the Outsider’s wrist, Corvo awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. Times like these made him wish he had the luxury in childhood that was having friends and gaining adequate social skills. 

“Well Corvo, good luck at rehearsal today. I’ll be watching with interest,” The Outsider said, before smoothly opening the door ad stepping inside, leaving Corvo standing there, flushed. 

If those were meant to be words of encouragement, Corvo didn’t feel very encouraged. In fact he felt something that could be equated to the day before a major test he didn’t study for. 

Taking a few deep breaths and hoping the red had faded from his face, he headed into the theater. He didn’t seem to be late at all. Most of the other students were lounging around, flipping through scripts and practicing lines to each other. 

Grabbing one of the large script packets from the front of the room, Corvo flipped through it, finding that he not only had the majority of songs, but he also had a few good chunks of dialog. Of course he should have expected this, he was one of the leads after all. 

He saw some of the other students going through and highlighting the parts they had, and actually that wasn’t too bad of an idea. So, he pulled out one of the highlighters he always kept in his bag, but almost never used, and began going over his parts. 

It was at that moment that Sokolov chose to come into the theater room. A hush fell over the students as they anticipated what the man had to say. 

“I expect everyone has picked up their scripts?” He asked the crowd. As few students gave half-hearted responses. 

“Good. Today was more of a day to get the script and do a simple run through. However it seems as if we are missing one of the leads. Does anyone know where Miss Boyle has run off too?” 

“She ran out a minute ago,” Someone said. 

“I can’t believe I actually cast her,” Sokolov muttered to himself as he walked towards his office that was tucked away past the backstage. 

The other students, including Corvo were silent until Sokolov said, “Well, what are you all waiting for. Practice your lines,” Before slamming shut the door to his office. 

Everyone took this as their queue to resume what they were doing. Corvo focused on highlighting his script, saying his lines in his head. Perhaps tomorrow would be better, and they could actually do a rehearsal without someone running off. 

From the way some of these people behaved you would think it was some kind of trashy reality TV drama. That, or some kind of morbid sitcom that revolved about making Corvo’s life harder than it needed to be. To be fair, about one-third of his problems could probably be avoided if he just learned how to say no. 

Why did he have to make things so complicated?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, sorry for the really long wait for this chapter. I was just really busy and then i lost my motivation to write. But for whatever reason it is now 2:34 am and I was struck with the urge to post this. Hey, it's before 2017, so I'm counting this as a personal victory. There's probably some errors, but I will check those after I get some sleep. Thanks for sticking around with me, and I hope I can get the next chapter up soon. 
> 
> Also, I sort of forgot this was a romance story, oops. Double oops, this probably should have been set in Karnaca. Triple oops, this might have been better as a University AU. 
> 
> Enough of my ramblings, thanks for reading this new chapter and this bit down here! Leave a review, it really makes me feel nice!

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So this is my first non-TF2 related fic, and it is also my first attempt at a real multi-chapter work. My updates are really slow, especially with school, but I will update eventually. Come say hi over at my tumblr, ginger-writes-things. As always, kudos and comments makes my week! Thanks for reading :^)


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